Effects of turmeric rhizome powder on growth, carcassand meat quality of Japanese quails fed sorghumsoybean-based diets

[摘要] This study was conducted with 600, seven day-old mixed Japanese quail chicks to investigate the effects ofvarying levels of turmeric rhizome powder (TRP) on growth parameters, carcass traits and organolepticproperties of the breast muscles. The chicks were randomly assigned to five dietary groups containing 0.00,0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00% TRP of sorghum-soybean based diet in a completely randomized design. Eachtreatment had six replicates of 20 birds each and was studied from 7 – 42 days of age. Growth performance(body weight, weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio and mortality), carcass characteristics (dressedweight, dressing percent, breast and gastrointestinal weights) and organoleptic properties (colour, flavor,juiciness, texture, number of chews, remains after and overall acceptability) were measured. One-way ANOVAwas used for data analysis and significant means separated using the least significant difference methods.Inclusion of TRP in the diet increased (P<0.05) all growth parameters, especially at 0.50% inclusion without anyadverse effect (P>0.05) on carcass traits. Mean scores for organoleptic evaluation of meat showed that TRP hadno influence (P>0.05) quail breast muscle. This study concludes that TRP significantly improved growthwithout altering the carcass and organoleptic properties of breast muscle of Japanese quails. Dietarysupplementation with 0.50% TRP is thus recommended for quails fed sorghum-soybean based diet.

[学科分类] 农业科学（综合）

[关键词] Spices;growth enhancer;responses;dressing yield;quails